Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Samuel 25:44

"Now Saul had given Michal his daughter, David`s wife, to Palti the son of Laish, who was of Gallim." — 1 Samuel 25:44 (ASV)

Michal his daughter. —The marriage of the Princess Michal to Phalti (Michal, we read, loved David, 1 Samuel 18:20) had probably taken place some time before. This high-handed act showed on the part of Saul a fixed determination to break utterly and forever with David. Phalti was presumably a chieftain whom Saul desired to attract to his fortunes. But the story of Michal does not end here. After King Saul’s death, Abner, the uncle (or perhaps the cousin) of the late king, the well-known captain of his army, made overtures to David. David, however, only consented to a friendship with Abner if his young kinswoman, the Princess Michal, Saul’s daughter, was taken away from Phalti and restored to him as his wife.

Abner, we read, complied with the condition, and Michal was taken from Phaltiel—as he is called in the account of this transaction, contained in 2 Samuel 3:13; 2 Samuel 3:16—and restored to David. An interesting and curious tradition concerning this man Phalti, or Phaltiel, is contained in the Talmud. In 1 Samuel 25:44 the second husband of David’s wife is called Phalti, and in 2 Samuel 3:15 he is called Phaltiel. Rabbi Jochanan said his name received that extension (el=God) to indicate that God had saved him from transgression. (The name Phalti being derived from the root palat—to cause to escape, Michal and Phalti never having lived together as man and wife.)—Treatise Sanhedrin, folio 19, column 2.

Once more the daughter of Saul appears in the sacred history (see 2 Samuel 6:20–23). It was the greatest day in David’s life—the Ark of the Covenant was being brought up with solemn pomp from its place of long exile in Kirjath-jearim to the new sacred capital of the loved king. One sad incident alone, we are told, marred the glories of the day. Michal, his wife, as Stanley thinks, in the proud, almost conservative spirit of the older dynasty, not without a thought of her father’s fallen house, looked on contemptuously as King David danced before the Ark with the priests, his royal robes thrown aside; and later in the day seems to have poured out before the king her scornful feelings.

“Preceding the blessed vessel, onward came,
With light dance leaping, girt in humble guise,
Israel’s sweet harper; in that moment he seemed
Less and yet more kingly. Opposite,
At a great palace, from the lattice forth
Looked Michal, like a lady full of scorn
And sorrow.”—DANTE: Purgatory, 10

The sacred story goes on to say that Michal, as a childless wife in the royal palace of David, had time to mourn her fatal exhibition of pride (see 2 Samuel 6:12–23).